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WHAT OUR THANKSGIVING IS LIKE!
Submitted By Anonymous


Not only do we have 6 kids but I am one of 5 siblings and all of us have between 3 and 6 children of our own. So, Thanksgiving is a big family crowd. When you have this many family members together in one place with cooking assignments in the kitchen by my mom for the females, drinking assignments in the den by my dad for all the men, and add to the mix, nieces and nephews using their aunts and uncles legs as archways to run through to raise the activity level in the kitchen to maximum, you can be sure, something unexpected will happen.

Last year, my 2 year old niece, Kristen, fell up the basement steps of my sister’s house and left her front tooth on the step. The funny thing was my youngest sister, Barbara and her husband, Jeff (Kristen’s mom and dad) tried desperately to reach a dentist (on Thanksgiving, right!) to see if it could be reinserted. Even funnier was everyone’s input as to how to keep the tooth alive..in milk, in salt water, etc. if a dentist would make a house call on a holiday! All this, while my father, a doctor himself, insisted it was pointless and Kristen only lost a baby tooth and to forget about it.

So, after about a half hour of phone calls to answering machines and unsolicited, bad, advice from family members as Barbara debated whether to try shoving the tooth back into the socket to see if it would stick, my dad was proven right. Why would the children of a doctor ever believe their father could know something as simple as what to do with a baby tooth?

So, this Thanksgiving for all of us begins in a few hours. Kristen is now 3 with a cute little gap in her mouth to remind us of last Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to see what will be this year’s drama!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving, however, is when we all stand around in a circle before dinner and everyone has to say for what they are thankful. There are always laughs and tears, especially when dad starts to cry about how blessed he is to be 75, in such good health along with mom and to have us around them. And there isn’t a dry eye in the house during prayers for family members separated by war and other loss.

So, today I will be thankful that our kids are home from college for all of us to be together again.

Tomorrow I will get back to work for the all of the moms on the move.

Happy Thanksgiving!



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